Confidence, pride lead to success at MVCC

Tuesday

The MVCC women’s basketball team has established itself as a powerhouse under coach Bobby Allison. O-D reporter Marques Phillips asked Allison a few questions at the start of the season.

The MVCC women’s basketball team has established itself as a powerhouse under coach Bobby Allison. O-D reporter Marques Phillips asked Allison a few questions at the start of the season.

Your team is dominant all year, then for three years straight, you lose in the title game. Do you have a problem finding the kind of competition that prepares you for that level of play during the regular season?

Losing three years in a row in the national title game is frustrating. But, it certainly doesn’t make the seasons a non-success. We pride ourselves in the fact that we do play such a good schedule. Every year we go outside our level and play up. Already this year we have played two scholarship schools and three teams that were nationally ranked. Every season is unique unto itself. I don’t believe that lack of preparation has ever been the cause of losing for us. We prepare for every team as if they are the best team in the country. Three years ago, we ran into an absolute buzz saw. That Monroe team I am told by the NJCAA reps is the best team that our level has ever seen. So to be runner up to that team is something I am proud of. Last year the final score was not indicative of how close the game was. Once we were down 10 with six minutes to go, we played as fast as we could because I felt if we were going to lose we were going to go out trying anything we could. To me losing by one or by 50 is the same thing. If that was a regular season game we may have lost by 10 or so. On top of that, we missed a ton of layups and shot awful from the line, and we were still right there. The middle year was the one that is the most disappointing. We were clearly the best team that year, we just chose the worst night to have a really bad shooting day. We held Anoka Ramsey to 52. You are supposed to win when you hold a team to 52 points.

On the basketball court, you're always talking and always emotional. In softball, you lay back and can't be heard most of the game. Are you more passionate about basketball?

No, not at all. Actually and surprisingly to most people, I enjoy softball/baseball significantly more. The games are just very different. Basketball by nature is far more intense and passionate, where in softball a pitch is thrown and then everyone stands around for 20 seconds. Where softball is a series of individual battles within a team game (pitcher vs. batter, fielder vs. batter, etc.) basketball is a true team sport. In softball you can only control so much as a coach, what pitch is thrown, whether to bunt or steal etc, but you can’t really manipulate the game. All nine have to take their turn at bat. In basketball, we as coaches can devise defensive schemes or we can run every play for one dominate player. In fact. I barely watch basketball, but I never miss a New York Mets game.

Your team is sort of a super power around here. What does MVCC offer that makes it such a successful basketball school?

The all around institutional support. When the new Administration took over the moral of the whole school changed. Athletics is viewed as an important and viable necessity at the College. It is so important that Athletics were just put under the Vice-President for Instruction since every Athlete receives one credit for playing a varsity sport. We have so much support from all angles of the school, from the dorms to the meal hall to the learning center to the professors, and everyone has the same goal, to make the student athletes experience better. The ancillary services go out of their way to support what we try to do, not a lot of our student athletes would come to MVCC if we couldn’t provide all the services that we offer. The other side of it is now that we have had some success its a little easier to get quality athletes to have interest. If it wasn't for all the great players we had in the past laying down the framework we wouldn’t be able to recruit the athletes we have now. Another point that is always over looked is Assistant Coaches. I have been blessed to have a great crew for a long time. Tom Torchia and Mike Fanelli have been with me for 6 of my 7 years. The amount of work they have done to help the program always goes unnoticed by everyone except for the kids. All the little things, the extra shooting, the ear to listen or the wise sage to give advice. Mike O'Brien joined us this year as well and he fits right into the same category. Crystal Bass was exceptional also. She was the Team Psychiatrist for the last 6 years, she has taken over the JV program at Proctor now and what a wise move for the future of Proctor Basketball to have her in that role.

Be honest, how would your team do in a good division III four-year conference?

I have no qualms in saying we would do extremely well in a D-III conference. To be honest, If we could keep our players for four years I truly believe we could compete with quality D-II teams. We try to scrimmage really good teams to prepare for our season and we have done quite nicely against D-III, D-II and D-I teams. The D-III teams do have juniors and seniors and the older kids do provide a nice maturity and leadership for the freshmen and that is tough at our level. The freshmen have to learn from Sophomores who have been through the battles for a year, not three years like seniors. But, from a talent perspective our top 10 could all be very, very good D3 players and several of them will receive scholarship offers so I think we would be a tough out for the Best D3 teams.

I look at someone like Mellissa St. Louis and see how much she's improved, I wonder, in a two-year school is it tougher to develop athletes and how do you do it?

It’s tough to develop because the turn around is so quick. It seems like they get her in Aug and 20 months later they are gone. But, we try to recruit enough depth that our practices are better than 75% of our games. In fact our second unit could probably win 16-18 games. We don’t usually let freshmen play a lot of minutes early. If a freshmen is playing major minutes early they must be special. In fact there have only been 2 players in the last 5 years that started both years, Sarah Gaffney and Shanai Norman. So what happens is their freshmen years is almost the dress rehearsal. They learn from the 2nd year player and try to emulate. Often by the end of the year things have shifted. An example was last year by the end of the year Melissa St. Louis wasn’t starting, but she was playing more minutes than the starters. If we didn’t bring in any freshmen next year, I would feel very confident starting 5 from this years freshmen class. In terms of development we do a lot of 1 on 1 stuff after the season, really stressing what they need to work on to be a better player. Then its up to the kid. You can teach them what they need to do but ultimately the great ones have it in their hearts to go and work at it. I only wish I had kids for four years. When they really start to play the way they are capable of, its time to move them on to another school.

You lost Tonisha Kirby and Shanai Norman, in women's basketball, losing experienced ball-handlers seems like it hurts. How much of a gap does that leave and how are you recovering from that this year?

Tonisha was a good player and a very creative passer. Even Gracie Plagainos could handle, she is out for the year with a broken clavicle, but she will return next year. But, Shanai was special. She was almost unguardable and I cant tell you how many times she just made a play with the shot clock running down. She made a complete mockery of the regional tournament last year. She just absolutely put our team on her shoulders and willed us on to victory. We were down nine at halftime to Finger Lakes in the semi finals and in the first 10 minutes of the second half she had 10 points and seven assists. She was responsible for 25 points, in 10 minutes, that’s special. But to be honest when you take the whole team and you compare last years team to this team in terms of ball handling, this years team is significantly better. Our top 8 guards can all handle and pass. We have four kids that were all starting point guards in the NYC PSAL, a prep school kid and 3 local ball handlers and all of them were all league players. It helps that they have to go against each others pressure not only all pre season but every day in practice. Plus Melissa St. Louis and Leslie Mencia the two starting forwards and Keonti Powell their back up are all essentially guards so we always have at least three or four ball handlers on the court at all times. The fact that we have so many people who can put the ball on the deck and make a play makes it difficult for teams to key on one or two players when they play against us.

Do you have shrine at home where you stack all of your coach of the year plaques? Are you going to demand one at MVCC?

No. I hate individual awards. Save them for bowlers and golfers. My two young daughters have them in their rooms. When they are playing, they use them to bribe the other in an attempt to take some possession from the others room. If we ever are lucky enough to win the National Tournament, then being coach of that tournament would mean something to me.

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